SOUTH.] Declination (printed D.or Dec.) expresses the distance of a celestial body north or south of the equator of the heavens.
With these explanations we may proceed to find a planet by the aid of the Nautical Almanac and our charts.

I take, for example, the ephemeris for the year 1901, and I look under the heading "Jupiter" on page 239, for the month of July.

Opposite the 15th day of the month I find the right ascension to be 18 h.

27 m., neglecting the seconds.

Now 27 minutes are so near to half an hour that, for our purposes, we may say Jupiter is in R.A.18 h.